An Overview of Gateway in Greater Manchester

Overall Aim

To provide a high quality service to refugees to support them in resettling in Greater Manchester.

StaffTeam

The staff team consists of a team manager, 1.5 operational deputy managers, 1 development manager, 8.5 resettlement caseworkers, 2.5 community development workers, 2 volunteer co-ordinators, 1 groupworker, 2 team administrators and 1 senior administrator.

Location

Edge Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester.

Clientele

We are currently working with Ethiopian and Somali.

Service

A Resettlement Worker is assigned to each adult on the programme. Support is provided for the first 12 months of the programme through casework (for around 8 months) and longer term community development work.Support focuses on integration and encouraging independence. Personal integration plans that identify both the strengths and needs of the clients are developed with each client and cover key aspects their lives.

The service is provided in close liaison with local statutory providers who arrange housing, education and health provision.

The service includes home visits, drop-in and group sessions and joint work with local organisations and volunteers and includes:

•Orientation first 2 weeks;

•Bi-lingual staff& use of interpreters

•managing expectations, cultural differences

•accompanying to appointments, links to support services & liaising with staff to develop packages of support - sure start, disability services, medical foundation for victims of torture

•Benefit applications & on-going benefits issues

•parenting information, crèche & nursery placements, after schools clubs

•home safety

•budgeting & financial matters

•assisting clients to find employment

•assisting clients to have new and enjoyable experiences including trips and events

•family re-union, tracing & messaging

•volunteering, mentoring

•group meetings,

•dealing with family break up, family tensions, cultural issues

•dealing with college enrolment, university applications & grant problems
The Gateway Protection Programme:

Refugee Resettlement in the UK

What is the Gateway Protection Programme?

The Gateway Protection Programme is the name of the UK’s humanitarian refugee resettlement programme. Refugees resettled include groups from Liberia, DRC, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mauritania and Burma.

Refugee Action provides the initial phase of support across 7 local authority areas.

The UK quota is 750 refugees per year.

What is resettlement?

Resettlement is one of three durable solutions advocated by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and a means of addressing the special needs of refugees. It involves the transfer of refugees from their country of asylum to a third country that has previously agreed to admit them and grant them formal status. It can be a long and difficult process for the refugees, ultimately leading to full integration into a new community.

Some countries have long-established resettlement programmes. Those with the largest quotas in 2001 were the United States (80,000 refugees), Canada (11,000), and Australia (10,000). The other durable solutions advocated by UNHCR are voluntary repatriation and local integration (see is involved?

The Gateway Protection Programme is funded by the Home Office and involves international organisations such as UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), other government departments, local authorities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and various community organisations. The NGOs deliver services on the Programme. Currently, 3 UK NGOs are actively involved in delivering services on the programme: they are the British Red Cross, Refugee Action and the Refugee Council,. In the early stages of the Programme, these organisations, with others, came together to form the Resettlement Inter-Agency Partnership (RIAP), as a cost-effective way of pooling resources, maintaining a national overview, and representing the best interests of all refugees.

How are refugees selected?

UNHCR refers applications for resettlement to the Home Office. The Home Office interviews all principal applicants. Cases are assessed and decisions made by the Home Office individually on their merits. Individuals referred to the UK for resettlement are considered by UNHCR to be eligible for recognition as refugees according to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Their life, liberty, safety, health, or other fundamental human rights must also be at risk in the country where they have sought refuge; or, they must be facing no possibility of long term security in that country. The UK imposes further restrictions including health and security checks.

What support do resettled refugees receive?

Refugees on the Gateway Protection Programme receive information, advice and support from the NGOs involved, through a pre-arrival cultural orientation programme, on-arrival information sessions, and regular home visits, individual case-plans, a drop-in service and group information sessions.

In the Greater Manchester programme, support and advice is provided by Refugee Action’s Resettlement Workers. It is designed to help resettled refugees access mainstream services and benefits for which resettled refugees are eligible – an important aspect of minimising dependence and easing integration. Gateway Development workers work with local Refugee Community Organisations to run orientation programmes, a befriending/buddying scheme and events, activities and trips for resettled refugees.

Housing is provided by the Local Authority and Housing Associations, although the refugees themselves are responsible for paying rent. Within one month of arriving in the UK, resettled refugees will be receiving benefit payments, looking for work, taking English language courses, and looking at other education and training opportunities; they will have their children enrolled in school, will be registered with a doctor and be regularly using public transport. Support is funded for 12 months.

How does the Programme relate to other areas of asylum and refugee policy?

On 29 October 2001, upon proposing the scheme, the Home Secretary David Blunkett, made a commitment to operating the scheme in conjunction (“bilaterally”) with UNHCR and “in addition to current UK asylum determination procedures”. Refugee Action welcomes this and believes that the UK programme must be founded wholly on the principle of resettling those in greatest need of protection and that resettlement must be viewed as additional to the UK’s obligations to refugees who make their own way. The refugee sector continues to advocate good integration practice and a parity of rights and entitlements between all refugees.

Where can I get further information?

A more detailed explanation of the Gateway Protection Programme can be found in the guide, Understanding resettlement to the UK, available with other information on the Programme at

you can visit

JOB DESCRIPTION

GATEWAY RESETTLEMENT WORKER

Responsible to:Gateway deputy manager

Responsible for:Providing and developing all aspects of in-depth, high quality advice and support to Refugees arriving in the region on the Gateway Refugee Resettlement Programme

PURPOSE OF THE POST

  • To assist clients in the Gateway Resettlement scheme to reach their own goals in their integration in the UK.
  • To work with the Gateway management team to develop access to additional services and support for Gateway clients.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

For service delivery

  • For a caseload of clients:
  • Provide initial reception and orientation.
  • Carry out a holistic needs assessment and prepare a Personal Integration Plan with clients.
  • Negotiate a support package with external agencies as appropriate according to the clients needs.
  • Ensure early agreement on the timing and scope for ending support.
  • To ensure that this work has a focus on fostering the independence of the clients and has respect for the culture, personal history and situation of all its users.
  • To work with clients to facilitate their access and engagement with mainstream statutory and voluntary sector services.
  • To liaise as appropriate with the client’s housing providers, ensuring that the clients are able to represent any concerns to the provider.
  • To ensure that this work is carried out in accordance with Refugee Action’s values, principles, policies and procedures, specifically those around equal opportunity, confidentiality, impartiality and non-directive advice.
  • With the support of the Team Manager, to maintain and develop excellent working relationships with and between external stakeholders in order to improve the availability of mainstream and specialist services for newly arrived Refugees.
  • To work with and supervise volunteers and interpreters as appropriate.
  • To keep full, accurate and up-to-date case records.
  • To provide written and oral reports as required.
  • To work with the team manager in reviewing, planning and developing the service.
  • To carry out monitoring and evaluation processes as appropriate.

For the Agency

  • To play an active role in one or more Refugee Action working groups as required.
  • To liaise with other Teams in Refugee Action as appropriate.
  • To attend regular Team meetings, in order to share information, monitor services and foster effective and supportive Team working.
  • To participate in supervision, appraisal and training as agreed with the Team Manager.
  • To carry out administrative tasks in support of own work (e.g. word- processing, filing).
  • To carry out other duties consistent with the nature of the post, and in furtherance of the project.
  • To carry out all the above in accordance with the aims, values and policies of Refugee Action, in particular, confidentiality, impartiality and Equal Opportunities.

The above duties will be prioritised by the deputy manager in consultation with the post-holder. The post-holder may be asked to re-organise their work in order to help the agency to respond to changes in type or extent of needs of refugees, which can arise from time to time. This would be done in a way consistent with the purposes of the post and in consultation with the post-holder.

CANDIDATE SPECIFICATION

All experience may be paid or voluntary, full or part-time, in the UK or overseas.

Candidates will be short-listed on the following specifications and should write about each in the application form.

Experience, Knowledge, Abilities and Skills

  • Demonstrate an understanding of the issues facing refugees during integration to a new community.
  • Experience and understanding of cultural diversity and the ability to work with people from a range of different cultures.
  • Ability and understanding of how to provide high quality face-to face support in the community and minimum of one year’s experience of having done so.
  • Ability and experience of assessment and compiling appropriate packages of support with service users and one year’s experience of having done so.
  • Ability to work with and provide training or information to groups.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to service user involvement and fostering independence.
  • Ability to deliver care plans in cooperation and partnership with a range of organisations and experience of doing so.
  • Basic working knowledge of UK mainstream services e.g. Education, Health, Housing, Welfare Benefits and community support systems.
  • Understanding of and commitment to equal opportunities

In addition to the above, candidates will be interviewed on the following if they are short-listed. Candidates need not write about these points in the application form.

  • Ability to work in partnership with and provide support for volunteers and interpreters as appropriate.
  • Good negotiating skills for working with a wide range of voluntary and statutory agencies.
  • Commitment to the principles of confidentiality, impartiality and non-directive advice.
  • Constructive approach to working within a small team and a larger agency.
  • Excellent active listening skills.
  • For all posts: Good spoken and written English, sufficient to provide advice in English, to advocate and negotiate on behalf of clients.
  • For Swahili post: Good spoken and written Swahili, sufficient to provide advice in Swahili, to advocate and negotiate on behalf of clients.
  • For Arabic post: Good spoken and written Arabic, sufficient to provide advice in Arabic, to advocate and negotiate on behalf of clients.
  • Open and reflective attitude to your own work and experience.
  • Ability to plan and manage own workload.
  • Ability to be administratively self-sufficient, including the working knowledge of Windows 98 and Word 2000 to the required standard.
  • The post requires some evening and weekend work and some travel within the UK, including occasional overnight stays.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

These posts are offered on a permanent basis initially funded until March 2014.The following terms and conditions will apply:

Location:This post will work across both Bolton and Manchester

Salary:£24,645- £27,045 p.a. (NJC Pts 29 - 32) pro rata for part-time post. All new employees will normally start at the bottom of the band.

Annual increments:Increments of one point per annum to the maximum of the band are paid on 1st April. To qualify the post holder must be confirmed in post and employed since the first of the previous October.

Pension:Refugee Action will contribute 8% of gross basic salary plus £50 per month into a pension plan

Holidays:24 days per year plus public holidays pro rata for part-time post. Holiday entitlement increases to a maximum of 31 days per year, reached within 5 years of employments.

Hours of Work:2x 35 hours per week (excluding lunch breaks).

1x 17.5 hours per week (excluding lunch breaks).

Some evenings and weekend work may be required for which time off in lieu should be claimed.

Probation:The posts will have a probationary period of six months.

Notice:One month’s notice of termination of employment on either side.

Disability:We are committed to making every reasonable adjustment to the workplace or working arrangements so as to accommodate people with disabilities.

Child care vouchers:Staff are able to purchase childcare vouchers through the payroll. This offers a saving as they are exempt from tax and NI. Limits on the value of the vouchers staff can purchase are set by the government and reviewed annually.

Employee Assistance

Programme (EAP)All Refugee Action staff and their families are subscribed touse a 24 hour confidential support line. Face to face counselling can also be arranged with the EAPs trained counsellors if appropriate.

CRB:Employment in these posts is subject to satisfactory police clearance being obtained.Because of the nature of the work for which you are applying, this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (exception) Order 1975 and you are therefore not entitled to withhold information about convictions which for other purposes are ‘spent’ under the provision of the Act.